Near Miss

[pbbeck]

I just came as close as I've ever come to dying on a motorcycle. I was commuting home from work. I was leaned over in sharp left off-ramp that becomes a major thoroughfare in Long Beach. Since there is no intersection/light here, I was doing about 35 and leaned over when I saw a person jaywalking across the road, heading straight for my intended path. There is no pedestrian access to this section of road (It's a highway offramp!), and this person was a tweaker/vagrant/bum with no apparent situational awareness, shuffling along and not looking to see if traffic was coming.

 

I wailed on the horn, which caused the tweaker to look to his left. He caught sight of me bearing down on him and did that deer thing, jumping to one side, then the other. I committed to one side (the outside), kept my eyes on my exit path, and did a textbook swerve without once touching the brakes. I missed the a--hole by about 15 feet.

 

This is a case where training paid off.. and luck.

[Fergie]

Nice job. I've noticed the last few years that there are more and more pedestrians not paying attention and giving the impression that THEY own the road.

Glad you made the right moves and all is well.

[Rotor]

Good thing you had the skills to handle the situation. If you had to think about it first it could have been a very different outcome.

 

Glad you're both alright!

[pbbeck]

Let me clarify... I swerved about fifteen feet from where he was standing. I missed him by about 5-6 feet. Yikes!

[MotorinLA]

Let me clarify... I swerved about fifteen feet from where he was standing. I missed him by about 5-6 feet. Yikes!

 

Another reason having good sight lines is so important. Always looking up and ahead can make the difference between a crash and a close call.

 

When my wife worked at LA County Medical Center she said they'd bring in transients that got hit by cars on a regular basis. In my experience, I've found many transients to be oblivious or have the "they'll stop for me" attitude (apparently that assumptions doesn't hold up...).

[Kitsap]

Glad to here you both lived to see another day. Hopefully he has friends to share his harrowing experience with also.

 

Good save.

[AviP]

I see a lot of kids daring vehicles to run them over. It's as if they feel that since we stop for school buses, we must come to a grinding halt everytime they have one foot in the crosswalk, even if we are barely within stopping distance. Unfortunately the law is in the favor of stupidity and pedestrians. Common sense has been flushed away and we are leading the world into a dumbed-down, lawyer-centric civilization.

[Quinn]

I see a lot of kids daring vehicles to run them over. It's as if they feel that since we stop for school buses, we must come to a grinding halt everytime they have one foot in the crosswalk, even if we are barely within stopping distance. Unfortunately the law is in the favor of stupidity and pedestrians. Common sense has been flushed away and we are leading the world into a dumbed-down, lawyer-centric civilization.

 

 

Especially true in college towns. College students look like a bunch of chickens wandering aimlessly off the curb, between parked cars, and maybe across the street.

 

[Penforhire]

Well, you probably would have lived, like hitting a big deer without antlers. Closest I've come to real death has to be swerving around cars & trucks (I've counted four close calls so far) coming around a mountain road toward me and mostly in my lane! Some day that'll either kill me or scare me off my bike.

[onmyrt]

George Carlin would have called it a 'Near HIT'.

 

I'm glad your OK.

[lvnvbiker]

Sounds like the area by the VA... When I moved to Vegas from So Cal there was a "tent city" in the triangle area off to the left of one of the ramps near there. I cant remember exactly but it was in the 605/22 area and there had been a few fatality ped vs motorvehicle incidents due to the tweeker/drunk/junkies over the course of a year. Its good that you had the ability to avoid the *&*^*% idiot, and enough daylight to spot him.

[Dave_zoom_zoom]

Good on you!

 

It's always hard for me to look where I want to go, when I really want to see just what this comatose person looks like.

 

Sounds like he owes you a big "THANK YOU" card!

 

 

Dave

[pbbeck]

George Carlin would have called it a 'Near HIT'.

 

I'm glad your OK.

 

Great Carlin reference! :-)

[psmitty]

Glad your ok!

[Silver Surfer/AKAButters]

Nice work! Glad you are here to tell the story.

[upflying]

In these PC times, we call these people "urban campers" or "residentially disadvantaged".

The socially and economically downtrodden often do not have ingrained self-preservation skills due to their unfortunate circumstances.

We will have no more bum bashing, homeless hits, transient taps or vagrant violence.

 

 

 

[Dave_zoom_zoom]

In these PC times, we call these people "urban campers" or "residentially disadvantaged".

The socially and economically downtrodden often do not have ingrained self-preservation skills due to their unfortunate circumstances.

We will have no more bum bashing, homeless hits, transient taps or vagrant violence.

 

 

POINT TAKEN! (now everybody - stay calm)

[Bud]

For a minute there, I thought you had crashed.

 

You had a near collision, a near miss would have been a hit.

[Tonopah]

I can't remember when I have ever used the horn under truly exigent circumstances -- all my focus is on avoiding and none on warning. If I have the time to warn (horn), then it isn't that close a call for me.

[pbbeck]

I hear what you're saying. When I first spotted the person, there was sufficient time to hit the horn, which is what I did first. The normal expected response from the person would have been to immediately react and scoot out of the way. What actually happened was nothing. No response. He just kept shuffling into my path. In the brief time it took me to register that this person was not aware of what was happening, that's when I had to go to Plan B and evade.

 

My mistake was assuming that the expected would happen.

[nrp]

I can never find the horn button unless I'm looking for something else.

 

With cars, the wide arrangements in horn buttons effectively makes them useless. In a panic, I don't have time to get the manual out to figure it out. I'm surprised there isn't a better standardization spec on controls.

[knight88]

I can't remember when I have ever used the horn under truly exigent circumstances -- all my focus is on avoiding and none on warning. If I have the time to warn (horn), then it isn't that close a call for me.

 

Whenever I get in a situation that I think I might have to lay on the horn, I position my horn "thumb" on the horn button until I leave that situation. In this case I would probably not have done that but left it where I always do close but not on it. They do wake up when I lay on it since I replaced the anemic factory horn with a airhorn